Sunderland Station - Earlier Stations

Earlier Stations

The first railway passenger services to Sunderland were provided by the Durham & Sunderland Railway Company in 1836. The line approached from the south along the coast and the terminus was near South Dock, which was known as Town Moor station.

Undistinguished either in architecture, convenience or accommodation it was replaced 22 years later by Hendon station, half a mile to the south, at a point where the line had to be joined by the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway Company's line to Penshaw and Durham (which had opened in 1853)

Meanwhile the Newcastle & Darlington Company had built their station at Fawcett Street, just south of the site of the present station.

On 4 August 1879, the North Eastern Railway Company opened a line from Ryhope Grange Junction over the river to Monkwearmouth, and a new station was built on the present site. Both of the other stations at Hendon and Fawcett Street were closed on the same date.

The current station, known as Sunderland Central at that time, was known locally as the New Station. Its platforms and lines lie in a cutting running north and south bounded by retaining walls to the east and west. Its single entrance and street-level buildings were at the North End, but a second entrance and associated buildings at the south were added five years later. The platform area was covered by an over-all semi-elliptical arched-rib roof which together with the North End buildings, was badly damaged by bombs in 1943.

In 1953, the old roof was replaced by umbrella-type roofing and the south end buildings were given an interim facelift, the complete rebuilding being deferred to enable advantage to be taken of the site's potential for property development and to ensure compatibility with the town's proposals for the redevelopment of this central area.

The complete rebuilding of the station was accomplished by November 1965.